Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Molly Cochran's "Seduction"

Molly Cochran has written and ghostwritten over 25 novels and nonfiction books, including the Edgar-winning bestseller Grandmaster and The Forever King, recipient of the New York Public Library award for Books of the Teen Age, both co-written with Warren Murphy, and the nonfiction bestseller Dressing Thin.

Here Cochran dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest YA novel, Seduction:
Who is Gaspard Ulliel?

He's the French hottie who played young Hannibal Lechter in Hannibal Rising, and more recently, the nameless but gorgeous Male Face of Chanel. Temptation personified!

My latest YA novel, Seduction, is all about temptation--or, rather, Temptation, with a capital T. The hapless characters in Seduction--Katy Ainsworth, played in this mental movie by Zooey Deschanel (whom I've always, from the beginning of the series, pictured as Katy), and her erstwhile boyfriend, Peter Shaw (Liam Hemsworth, using his superb, if studied, American accent)--are tempted at every turn by riches, beauty, ambition, knowledge, and even immortality.

From the moment Peter learns that he can make gold from base metal, his life takes a sharp upturn. Living in Paris with a house full of beautiful, if shallow, women who adore him, he is surprised to encounter his old flame Katy, who has come to Paris to study cooking. Katy, meanwhile, faces some temptations of her own, mainly in the form of a sexy French millionaire named Belmondo (Ulliel) who plays lead guitar in a rock band as a hobby, and is an expert in, well, seduction.

Then there's Katy's grandfatherly friend Azreal, whom Katy discovers living beneath the famous Paris sewers. Although it would ruin the surprise if I mentioned why, this character would require an actor of extraordinary range, so I'm putting my money on Benedict Cumberbatch, who I think could carry age well. Azreal possesses an extremely rare book, a handwritten history of Paris that begins in the twelfth century, told from the point of view of an immortal alchemist. When charming-but-klutzy Katy inadvertently breaks the binding of this book, her first course of action, being Katy, is to steal it, hoping that she'll be able to repair the damage and return it before Azreal finds out.

While she's sewing the binding (and reading the pages as she works) Katy discovers the dark and ancient secret kept by Peter's sophisticated housemates that leads her back to her old nemesis, the Darkness, an entity whose evil consciousness threatens to destroy Katy's sorely tested innocence as well as her life.

The Darkness has no body, but It does have a voice. Let's call James Earl Jones.
Learn more about the book and author at Molly Cochran's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Legacy.

The Page 69 Test: Poison.

--Marshal Zeringue